The present invention relates, in general, to waste management facilities and in particular to a waste disposal system for treating and disposing of infectious waste articles in a substantially controlled, closed, aseptic environment for conversion of same into independent safely disposable non-infectious, non-toxic solid waste residues and independent liquids.
Within the last fifteen years, emphasis has been directed towards the design of waste disposal treatment methods and systems which more effectively deal with the complex problems associated with treating and disposing of the many glassware, needles, syringes and substantially hazardous waste discarded from a hospital environment, for example, together with the highly infectious tissues, test tubes, slides, etc. that accompany such hazardous products in a medical or research facility. Over the years, on-site incinerators with their associated high costs of operation and ineffective utilization of costly resources such as natural gas, petroleum and the like, have been utilized to dispose of such dangerous and infectious waste on a bulk basis, while adversely affecting the environment through the release of potentially toxic exhaust and vapors emanating from incineration of, for example, plastics used in substantial volumes within such facilities.
During the above more recent years, several systems and apparata have been developed which may be utilized to process, on a relatively small scale, portions of the waste articles which emanate from hospital, research and experimental facilities while, generally, not being capable of disposing and permanently treating, for safe release into sewerage or land fill, most, if not all of the articles contemplated for trash or discard in such an environment. Indeed, U.S. Pat. No. 3,926,379 covering a syringe disintegrator discloses such a "specialized" disposal apparatus in which hypodermic syringes may be pulverized and disinfected for subsequent disposal. The assignee of the present invention, through its pending applications, Ser. Nos. 06/541,140 filed Oct. 12, 1983 and 06/658,701 filed Oct. 9, 1984 disclose yet additional systems for disintegrating some forms of hospital waste.
The present invention is directed towards a waste disposal system capable of accepting, processing and effectively disposing of virtually all the waste materials a present facility is typically desirous of discarding, in a non-furnace environment without the need for incineration--a system in which all the waste is "neutralized" so as to be safe, after processing, for sewerage or land fill release through mechanical alteration of the waste articles and treatment with disinfectants which, in combination more effectively obviate the need for incineration.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a waste disposal system which more effectively disintegrates and fragments a vast majority of disposable materials as to make them noninfectious and capable of subsequent disposal via conventional sewerage and land fill techniques.
It is an additional object of the present invention to accept large volumes of waste materials of virtually any composition typically found in a hospital, medical, experimental or laboratory environment, for disinfection and disposal of same--in an environment where disintegration is optomized for complete disinfection.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide for such a waste disposal system in which disinfectant itself may be generated on a on-site basis at reduced costs in an environment where detergents are not needed so as avoid impairing the effect of the disinfectant used during the disposal treatment operations.
As an additional object of the present invention is the provision of a waste disposal system that mechanically disintegrates the majority of discarded materials from such an "infectious" environment to substantially small particulate components for complete disinfection of same, where immediately prior to disposal of the by-products of said treatment, the solid waste and liquid disinfectant components developed during processing are separated through an effective new liquid-solid separation technique for bulk utilization.
As a further object of the present invention is the provision of a waste disposal system which relies upon preliminary fragmentation of the waste materials, followed by subsequent violent disintegration of the remaining fragmented particles for complete envelopment within disinfectant solution, and for substantial impregnation thereof, while safely maintaining the immediately surrounding environment free of bacteria-laden air or particles carried by the air within the system. The system further treats and releases such air maintained within the system through a series of filters so as to yield all by-products of the disposal process safe to personnel both inside and outside the facility, and to the environment in general.
These and other objects of the invention will become apparent in view of the present specification, claims and drawings.